Young volunteers create their own guide to mental health support services
This new guide will help young people find and access the support they need more easily.
The Wiltshire Mental Health Support Services List for Young People follows on from a guide for adults, produced by members of our Wiltshire Mental Health Open Forum as a way of helping people who are struggling with their mental health to find the right support for them quickly and easily.
Both guides are now available to download from the Healthwatch Wiltshire website, where the list for adults has already been downloaded more than 300 times.
Young volunteer Robyn Moore said:
“After being involved with the Mental Health Forum’s resources list and seeing how well it had been received it seemed like a great idea to create a version specifically for young people. It was really interesting putting it together and realising just how many organisations were out there.
“As well as more well known organisations we tried to include a wide range of resources to highlight help that reflects the range of difficulties young people might face and be as inclusive as possible.
“Resources like this can be a more accessible way for young people to find information, support and community.”
Fellow young volunteer Erin Woodsford said:
“It felt very good to have all this information in one place and in a way people could understand, and it felt even better knowing that this could make a huge difference to young people, especially when locating and finding the right organisations and helplines can be difficult.
“I feel like this could really benefit children and young people in Wiltshire as it signposts them to various forms of help, and it is a great resource for somebody who may not know who to go to and how to access the information they want.”
Jo Woodsford, Volunteer and Partnerships Lead at Healthwatch Wiltshire, said:
“When our young volunteers saw how useful the mental health resources list for adults was, they took it upon themselves to create a version for children and young people.
“They took great care in researching a wide range of services and their hard work has resulted in a detailed guide which will be a valuable resource for any young person looking for information and support.”
Nick Bolton, Wiltshire Healthy Schools Lead at Wiltshire Council, said:
“Young people have told us that they can't always find the information they need to support their mental health, and are uncertain where to go for help. This new guide will help young people find and access the support they need more easily.
"I think that young people will trust these recommendations, and the guide will also be extremely useful for parents and carers, school staff and anyone else who supports young people.
"This project is a really good example of young people working to make a positive difference to the wellbeing of their community.”
Get involved
Young Healthwatch Wiltshire is open to anyone aged 14-25 who has something to say about the health and social care services they use - and who wants to help others get their voices heard.
